Warrior of Ras, Volume Three: The Wylde is the third of a four game series that were all written by Randall D. Masteller and published by Screenplay. It was released in 1983 for the Apple II, Atari 8-bit, and Commodore 64. I played the Commodore 64 version using an emulator and it took me about 6 hours to beat.
Masteller wrote and released all four games in the series in a relatively short time period between 1982 and 1983. The first two games in the series were Warrior of Ras, Volume I: Dunzhin and Warrior of Ras, Volume II: Kaiv and my reviews on both were very favorable. The Wylde builds upon the previous two games by adding more features as well as improving on the combat system.
Those who have played Kaiv, the second installment in the series, will recall the fate of Grimsweord the Warrior. He returned from his venture into the Kaiv ragged and lame and was taken to the castle of the mighty Wizard. Sadly the wizard’s magic proved powerless against the warrior’s terrible wounds. You have volunteered to venture deep into the Wylde and find the Truculent Tonic of Tabanid as the Wizard claims it is the only thing that can save him now. Lord Doserror (haha) gives you 2000 gold pieces for supplies and wishes you luck.
It is at this point that you use your 2000 gold pieces to supply yourself for your adventure. You can type in @ here to receive a standard pack for 1970 gold pieces which basically outfits you with everything but the magic sword or you can purchase all your supplies individually. The entire adventure takes place outdoors so there are no torches or light sources that you have to worry about.
There are two other trading posts located on the outdoor map where you can also purchase supplies. In the sessions that I played there was also a bounty on bears and thus if I did encounter any bears I could sell their pelts for additional gold at either trading post. I suspect that the bounties are random but with three different characters I kept getting bears as my bounty animal.
You begin play in the lower left hand corner of the outdoor map and ultimately you’re going to find that which you seek all the way up in the upper right corner of the map. You get to move 9 spaces each turn and the game keeps track of time and weather for you. There are random events which may occur on the map as well such as a rainstorm, snowstorm, intense heat (where you must remove your metal armor or take damage), rotting corpses, tracks of wolves, etc. You’re going to want to ultimately amass 3000 gold pieces so that you can purchase the magic sword. Five undead mummies guard the treasure you’re looking for and they can only be affected by magic weapons.
The game plays very much like a table-top dungeons & dragons wilderness adventure. You move about the map and deal with random encounters.
You gain experience and your level increases as you defeat more and more foes. You gain greater protection and defensive scores for each of your body parts as you gain experience and level up. Your attack values will also improve as you gain levels and experience.
The encounters become deadlier as you move from the southwest corner of the map towards the northeast corner. The closer you get to the treasure which you seek, on the opposite end of the map, the greater the rank of your foes you’ll face.
Dogs, Wolves, Bears, and Skeletons are examples of some of the low-ranked foes you’ll face. Wyverns, Trolls, Wraiths, Vampires, and Mummies are examples of the higher-ranked foes you’ll face. The powerful undead opponents can only be damaged by a magic weapon which is why you MUST save enough gold to purchase the magic sword.
Combat for such an early series is very sophisticated. You can choose several different target areas when attacking your foes:
- Left-leg
- Right-leg
- Right-arm
- Left-arm
- Left-foreleg
- Right-foreleg
- Left-hindleg
- Right-hindleg
- Head
- Chest
- Neck
- Body
- Abdomen
You can also choose an AIM command where you spend a round studying your opponent carefully and thus increasing your chances to hit OR you can choose a FORCE command that has you attacking with an almost berserker rage. If you’re attacking with FORCE you can inflict much greater damage but your chances of hitting are not as good. Once I began to gain experience and increase in levels my favorite technique was to use FORCE and always go for my opponent’s NECK as that area seemed to have less protection than other areas. I found I could quicky take out a powerful foe this way if my attack was successful. There is also a BRIBE and HIDE command and terrain comes into play as well during your tactical battles.
When combat ensues the game switches to a different tactical screen as shown above. We’ve seen this before in Tunnels of Doom and Ultima III. A different tactical screen as well as specific target locations you can choose to strike at; combined with a myriad number of magic items that affect mechanics, is all very impressive in 1983.
There are a number of different magic items that you can acquire from your encounters. There are many different types of rings, wands and potions. For example, as depicted in my inventory shown above, my character found a Ring of Fireballs, Ring of Invisibility, Ring of Teleportation, and a Ring of Healing. All of the magic items were fun to experiment with to see how they impact mechanics.
The treasure you seek is located up in the northeast corner of the outdoor map. It is guarded by five mummies whose touch can drain you of a level! You cannot defeat these enemies without the magic sword. Once you defeat the five mummies you can then obtain the magic item which you’re questing for.
Once you have the item in hand you then make your way all the way back to the starting point after which you’ll receive the following message shown above.
The third offering in the series does not disappoint. It builds on the previous two installments and is quite impressive for it’s time. The game ran smoothly and kept my attention the entire time. In my opinion it is a step above Robert Clardy’s Wilderness Campaign and subsequent adventures and probably THE best example of an outdoor fantasy campaign of it’s time; yet’s Clardy’s works garnered way more recognition.
If you fancy yourself a historian or fan of these earlier games and you’ve not yet played The Wylde I suggest you make the effort to play it.
Next up for me is going to be Warrior of Ras, Volume IV: Ziggurat where’ll I’ll be concluding the four-game series and, alas, my time with Masteller.
Until next time…